Tying up the boat in the yacht club “Clubo Naval de Charitas” of Niterio in the bay of Rio de Janeiro turned out as a little adventure in its own right.
The main problem was of course the non existant communication with the club personnel, but also a seemingly very aukward buoy system where you have to pick up the buoy first and then tie to the pier. A real problem when there is a strong wind from the side and you want to lie bow to, which means you loose your manouvrability once the stern is tied to the bouy. It felt like an eternity before we figured that there are standard mooring lines as well and we just could do it as we were used to. The whole manouver was rather emberassing.
However, it turned out his was the only odd thing associated with this club. It felt like home immediately. First of all, it was well guarded, so we could move around without having to have our guards up. We quite enjoyed that since it was a first since a long time.
Also, having all the conveniances like showers, a restaurant and of course a bar and a pool within short walking distance made life really pleasant. And then there is Susi, a very friendly lady from England who is living in the club and is taking care of any new arrivals, helping with any sort of advice and even taking us to a very scienic spot in her car.
But of course, there was also bureaucracy to spoil the perfect picture just a little bit.
As usual we had to go the the “Policia Federal”, then to customs and finally to the Capitania.
We were allready used to this, but in Niteroi it turned out that Policia just didn´t grasp that all they had to do was stamp our passport and sent us on an errand into Rio which meant that we walked an awful lot and it took us three full days just to check into Brazil again.
Eventually we got it over and done with, so the holiday could start.
There was no work to be done on the boat, which was a first too, so all we had to do was enjoy ourselves. And so we did. We managed to make the trip to the Christobar statue, as every sensible tourist has to. But after that we concluded that we had seen enough and could just as well chill out in the club.
We had a great time there. A boat from Cape Town tied up next to us who just had sailed apx. 3300 miles over the Atlantic. So we met Jac and his family from South Africa. Not only did we spend a couple of very nice evenings, but we were also invited for dinner and were treated to the best barbecued meat I had in Months – a most note worthy occasion for me.
We also met two very nice gentlemen form France. The poor fellows got all their money, cards and passports stolen when they had a beer at the Copa Cobana. For us a good excuse not to go there, which suited us nicely since we were to lazy anyway.
Our stay in Niteroi also had one really profound effect. All the locals we met, and that actually even included the public servants, were incredibly friendly and helpful. I travelled a lot in my life, but never before have I met a people that is so outgoing and helpful.
Yes, we had our problems in Brazil and criminality undeniably is an issue. However, the way I started looking at it is that this is because Brazil in some economic aspects is in early development stages and so is the society. This leads to a much grater diversity of the people than you can expect of the countries of “Old Europe”. I can´t believe I am using this term, but in that context it just feels like a very accurate description.
In summary, in Brazil you have to be on guard moving around, something many Europeans are not used to, but it really is well worth it.
Brazil really is a country one must not miss.
After twelve days we said good byes to this lovely club and set sails again. Not of course without drinking as many caipirinhas as possible the night before the departure!
I will certainly keep the yacht club Charitas in very good memory, and I can only recommend it to anyone who sails this area and wants to see Rio de Janeiro.
So long!
Andreas
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